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Android Honeycomb supports the ability to add multiple email accounts, however it is not quite as “user friendly” as doing the same on the iPhone or iPad. In Android this is handled in a Settings app like the iPad, but if the iOS (and English) word email is substituted with the Android word Accounts & sync, it becomes a bit clearer, but not to the extent that wondering why the word email wasn’t used in the first place.

To start, tap the Apps icon located at the top right corner of the Home screen, and open the Settings app by tapping (not turning) the icon resembling an old fashioned analogue radio dial. Select the Accounts & sync category, then the + Add account located in the top right of the Settings screen. Finally an option is presented to add (gasp) an email account. Tap Email in the short list.

In the Email Account screen enter the email address and password for the account then Next. In the screenshots above, I chose to add my yahoo “whipping account” for purposes of illustration. Android will now try and validate with your email provider, and a message such as “Checking incoming server settings…” will briefly flash during this process. After validation, there are a handful of options to tick on and off. Tap the Send email from this account by default box if you wish the email address entered on last screen to be the “primary” mail account. When finished tap Next to proceed to the next and last step, setting the Account and Display names.

The Account name is the name of the account as far as Android is concerned, Display Name is the name remote recipients see when they see your messages appear in their inbox. I generally choose to use the email address as the Account name, and my real name as the Display name. After the final Next button is thankfully tapped, the new email account appears in the Manage Accounts list in Settings.

For non-Google email accounts use the Mail application to read and send messages. The first time the account is accessed in Mail there will be a delay because the mail folder needs a full synchronisation, after the initial sync the process will be much faster when Mail is opened.

You may wish to place the Mail app on the Home screen for quick access, the last three screenshots illustrate how to drag an icon to a Home screen whilst viewing Apps icon grid. The key is to open Apps, and tap and hold the Mail icon. This permits dragging the icon to one of the Home screens represented by rectangles at the bottom of the window. Release the Mail icon after it is inside the rectangle of your choosing and it will then be visible on “real” Home screen.